Happy Reformation Day!

Here's another blog post that I want to share with my fellow Christian blog readers.  This one was written by Gene Veith, who writes a blog called "Cranach--the Blog of Veith":

http://www.geneveith.com/2012/10/31/reforming-the-church/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+geneveith+%28Cranach%3A+The+Blog+of+Veith%29

REFORMING THE CHURCH

Today is Reformation Day, the 495th anniversary of Martin Luther posting the 95 Theses against the sale of indulgences. Some people have been criticizing Lutherans and others who celebrate this day. Why should we celebrate the shattering of the universal church?

First of all, the posting of the theses did not shatter the universal church. Luther was reforming the church, and it needed reforming. Financial corruption (the sale of church offices, the indulgence and relic trade, profiting from Christians terrified of purgatory), sexual immorality (popes with illegitimate children whom they named bishops, brothels for priests, the notion that fornication is better than marriage for clergy under vows of celibacy), and political power (popes with armies waging war against other countries, popes claiming temporal power over lawful earthly authorities). Even worse, the gospel of Christ was obscured in favor of an elaborate system of salvation by works. To be sure, the medieval church taught Christ’s atonement on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins, but in practice that was relegated to baptism only. After baptism, Christians had to atone for their own sins in a complex penitential system, requiring the confession of each sin, works of penance, and even after absolution the punishment of those sins after death in purgatory (unless an indulgence was purchased or rewarded).

That the church needed reforming because of these practices is proven in part by the Council of Trent, which addressed the most blatant financial and moral faults, while keeping the penitential system, though also encouraging personal piety (another fruit of the Reformation over against what had become a mechanistic approach to religion).

The splitting of Christianity came when the Roman church excommunicated Luther for his stance on indulgences, even though it would later grant most of his points.

Reforming the church, though, is something to celebrate and something to keep working on. I would argue that the same issues that sparked the Reformation are still problems in today’s church, including protestant and Lutheran congregations: financial corruption (the prosperity gospel, religious scams), sexual immorality (scandals among pastors and church leaders; the pornography plague), political power (the new social gospel of both the right and the left). And now, as then, we see the Gospel consigned just to first becoming a Christian, so that many people think of Christ’s atonement as applying to conversion, but feeling themselves now as being under the Law. They have lost the sense of God’s grace and forgiveness as a continuing reality, available through the Word and Sacraments as the constant life force for the Christian life.

So we still need Reformation Day and we still need the message of the Reformation.

12 More Days?

Regarding the upcoming presidential election, all of you fellow Christians might enjoy reading the following short article by Michael Horton, which he posted on his White Horse Inn blog.  http://networkedblogs.com/DVKDC 

PROMISES, PROMISES

Political candidates these days summon our confidence by promises they make about the future. We wonder whether we can believe them. Or we jump on one bandwagon or another as if it could actually fulfill our deepest hopes and dreams—and drive away our deepest fears.

But when Jesus says, “Fear not, little flock, I have overcome the world,” he is actually announcing an accomplishment of his agenda. The saints in the old covenant had to wait for the promises to be realized, but we stand on this side of victory. His representative life of obedience fulfilled the law; his death delivered us from the curse; his resurrection brought justification and inaugurated the new creation.

Down to the last word, John gives all glory to “him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom…” (Rev 1:6). He records the words of Jesus Christ: “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty’” (Rev 1:8). “When I saw him,” John reports, “I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades’” (vv 17-18).

With this confidence as our ultimate anchor, we can be wildly optimistic about Christ’s future for us without being seduced by the false promises, ideologies, and idols of our age—and the illusion that somehow our cultural and political labors are building or restoring Christ’s kingdom. Rearranging the order of our loves, this good news frees us to exercise responsible vocations—including citizenship—without idealism or, it’s flip-side, cynicism. We can cast our votes while casting our fears on our risen and returning King. We can even promote our candidates (outside the church!), with restored sanity. United to Christ, we should be the most responsible and the least fearful people at the polls on November 6, 2012, because our King already achieved his landslide victory in Jerusalem during Passover, AD 33.

A Walk on the Beach

Dave and I are home now from our trip to the beach.  Still at the beach on Friday morning, we woke up to rain--the first rain around 102 days.  The whole state of Washington had been under a burn ban, but that ban is lifted now.

We like to camp at Washington State Parks during the off-season.  Not only are the parks less crowded, but we can use Dave's Senior Off-Season Pass and camp for $6/night.  Each season we have to pay $50 to buy the pass.   Unfortunately, this great deal is only available for Washington residents. 

On Wednesday, while Dave made a quick trip back to Vancouver, I went for a walk on the beach.  The weather was beautiful and there was no wind. 

Benson Beach at Cape Disappointment State Park is accessible from each of the three sections of the campground.  Here's a picture of the access from Sites 1-60, which is the full-hookup section where we like to stay.

The picture makes it look like the path to the beach was blocked, but it was open and it was an easy walk to the beach.  Here's a shot looking back toward the camping loop containing sites 11-20.  This is a busy loop because everyone walks through this loop in order to get to the beach.  This loop also gets the most wind since it's closest to the ocean. 

The sign at the top of the picture warns that dogs must be on a leash and that hazardous swimming conditions are present.  And, oh yes, no gathering of wood is allowed on the beach.

There was plenty of driftwood along the edge of the beach.  Below are a few pictures of some of the structures that people had built from some of the driftwood. 

I saw this piece of flotsam and couldn't quite imagine what the original boat had looked like.  I also couldn't tell if these remains came from the Japan tsunami or from a local boat.

Top of the flotsam:

Back of the flotsam:

Cape Disappointment has two lighthouses, Cape D Lighthouse, which has black stripes and is pictured at the top of my blog, and North Head Lighthouse, which has a red roof and no stripes, and is visible from Benson Beach.

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse is accessible by taking a 2-mile hike, but North Head Lighthouse has a road and parking lot and also has two rental vacation houses.

Did you know that according to Norse mythology, the first humans, Ask and Embla, were formed out of two pieces of driftwood, an ash and an elm?

THE END

Cape Disappointment State Park

Our first night at Cape Disappointment State Park was very relaxing.  Lulled by the sound of the ocean waves, I enjoyed a good night's sleep.  At home I have been on edge ever since our motorhome was broken into, but it's so peaceful and quiet here at the state park that I am finally able to relax.

Dave wrote in his blog about a new cell phone signal extender antenna which we are trying out.  It works!  The signal is still weak and the internet connection through our smartphones is still slow, but at least it's a signal.  No more trips to the library or McDonald's to use their internet. 

Dave and I went for a walk in town (Long Beach, WA) and had lunch at our favorite spot, Hungry Harbor Inn.  Many of the stores are only open on the weekend during the fall and winter.  Even our trip to town was relaxing! 

The driftwood at the park's Waikiki Beach was present as always. 

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

As Dave mentioned in his blog, we were able to add an extra day onto our stay here.  We'll have to change sites, but we'll still be in our favorite loop.  On Friday we'll move to Elochoman Marina RV Park located in the small town of Cathlamet where Dave will be observing and videoing the varsity football game Friday night. 

Site #7

This site, like many of the sites in this park, is spacious and would be a fun place for children to play.

The new cell booster antenna--believe it or not, it folds up small enough to store.

Update

After our motorhome was burglarized on September 7, Dave and I have been busy cleaning it up and trying to assess all the items that were stolen.  We have replaced most of the things and we have a nice long list of current prices and receipts to submit to our insurance agency, Pemco.  I believe it will all be handled by our homeowner's insurance policy as there appears to be no physical damage to the motorhome, except for one inside cabinet door being torn off its hinges, which Dave was able to fix.

The biggest items stolen were all the electronic items, including TVs, DVRs, DVD player, etc.  In some cases, the cables were cut, so Dave has been making new cables to replace them.  It is all very time-consuming.  All the bedding and several of our towels were stolen, along with smaller items such as a lamp, binoculars, printer, wifi and cell phone boosters, flashlights, kitchen knives, etc. 

When all is put back together, we plan on taking the motorhome out for at least a one-night trip in order to make sure that we haven't overlooked any missing items or any other damages. 

I want to thank all my blog readers who commented about the break-in.  It's legally considered a burglary if there's more than $500 worth of stuff stolen.  Our grand total is closer to $5000 than $500.  Anyway, thank you so much, dear blog readers--your comments, support, and sympathy were much appreciated during this difficult time.

The good news is that there appears to be no structural damage to the motorhome, inside or outside.  Dave and I are both alive and well.  Our house was not broken into, neither was our shop.  It's all just stuff.  Sure we want to replace it and get our motorhome restored to its former condition, but we could live without all of it if necessary.  We've beefed up our security for the motorhome and our house and shop.  The deputy sheriff assured us that we had done everything right to protect ourselves and that this was a random act, but one that is becoming prevalent in this society where there are so many people hooked on drugs and doing evil acts. 

Hopefully next time I blog it will be about a more cheerful topic!  :-)

Oh No, a Break-In

We did not have a good day on Friday.  Our motorhome was broken into as it sat parked in its usual spot in our backyard behind a locked gate. 

Around 6:30 pm on Friday, I noticed the the curtains were blowing out both of the front windows.  That's strange, I thought, we never leave our windows open without the screens being in place.  It didn't occur to me that something was wrong, I just thought maybe Dave had been working out there and had inadvertently left the windows open.  I saw some linens and stuff outside of the driver side window and I thought, wow, stuff blew out the window. 

After I unlocked the motorhome--yes it was still locked, like we left it--I saw that the inside was a mess.  My first thought was that an animal had gotten inside.  Well, it turned out it was animals all right, the two-legged version of animals.  Finally I noticed that the front flat screen TV was missing.  Ah ha, now I reluctantly admitted to myself that I was looking at an RV that had been burglarized.  It's funny how my mind did not want to go there.  I didn't even notice at first glance that ALL the electronics were missing.

Empty front cabinets

Empty bedroom TV cabinet--I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of all the mess strewn through the RV

By the way, Dave was not home at this time.  He was refereeing a football game in a town about 1/2  hour away.  So I did what I knew had to be done and called 9-1-1.  After several attempts to reach them, they finally answered and told me an officer would contact me.  A deputy sheriff came by the house around 8 pm and I felt better once he arrived.  He did his report and reassured me that we had done everything we could to prevent this.  No other crimes had been reported in our neighborhood. 

After the deputy left, I called both of my sons and sat down to wait for Dave to get my frantic messages about what had happened.  Dave saw the messages at the end of the football game and came right home.  As soon as he got home, I breathed a sigh of relief and let him handle the rest of the details like canceling our RV Direct TV service and calling the insurance company the next morning.  Dave is my rock and he didn't let me down. 

On Saturday we made an effort to clean up some of the mess and begin the assessment of what was missing.  This step was hard to do, but it turned out to be therapeutic for us to start to take control of the situation. 

All the electronics are gone, even the printer and wifi and cell phone boosters.  All the bedding and towels are gone--they probably used those for padding the electronics and hiding them. 

The inside damage was mostly a mess, not structural damage.  We discovered several odd things--the thieves ate some tapioca pudding while they were there, drank four sodas, and took our gum stash, chewed some gum, and smeared some on the driver's seat.  They took our cheap plastic toothbrush holder--actually unscrewed it from the wall.  Is that where people hide their valuables--behind the toothbrush holder??   Strange.  They relieved themselves in our toilet and left us that smelly present, but didn't do any other damage. 

As people usually do after a break-in, we feel violated, uneasy, a bit scared, worried that it might happen again, and generally like we are being watched.  Plus we have to deal with getting all the electronics and bedding replaced. 

No, this is not going to keep us from RVing.  After all, this happened at home, not on the road.  However, our respite and happy place, our motorhome, is not quite the happy place that it once was.  The house was not broken into and our big shop out back was not broken into, so things could have been much worse. 

Thanks for listening.  It's been somewhat therapeutic for me to write and talk about the details of this unfortunate incident. 

A Day Trip to Mount Saint Helens and Some Special Visitors

First, thank you to all who expressed concern over my recent illness.  Although I still get tired very easily, I think I am almost well. 

After all those days of being house-bound, Dave surprised me on Sunday by suggesting that we take a drive to Cougar, Washington, which is near the southern base of Mount Saint Helen's.  We took along a picnic lunch and headed out around 10 am.  We took the back way to Cougar which goes through Battle Ground and the tiny town of Amboy.  This route passes several lakes that came about because of dams and power plants--Merwin Lake, Yale Lake, and Swift Reservoir.  Cougar is also a very small town, but it's where mountain hikers can register.  Cougar has a couple of campgrounds, both of which looked busy on this holiday weekend.

We continued on to Ape Cave, another busy place.  We didn't tour the cave, but we walked up to the entrance of the cave and took pictures.  Parking at Ape Cave is $5, or free for those of us with a National Parks Senior Pass.

We then backtracked to Trail of Two Forests, a handicap-accessbile interpretive walk along a lava flow.  This lava looked to be about 20,000 years old.  The lava was covered with moss, however, you could still see the holes where massive trees had been uprooted.

Our next and final destination for the day was Lava Canyon.  The parking lot there, however, was full, so we left.  Not too far from there we found a parking spot where we sat and enjoyed the lunch we brought along.  Our view was...Mount Saint Helen's!

We came home through Woodland, WA and after stopping at a car wash to wash away all the road dust, we got home around 3:30.  Even though I needed to take a nap when we got home, we had a fun and satisfying outing!

This afternoon we were happy to receive a visit from fellow bloggers and RVers, Russ and Donna Krecklow.  Donna writes a popular blog called Travels in 'Therapy'.  They live in Eugene, Oregon, and travel in their Lazy Daze motorhome.  The Krecklows are on their way to Glacier National Park, but tonight their motorhome is parked in our side driveway, and they and their dog, Poppy, are spending the first night of their trip on this side of the Columbia River.  Thank you, Russ and Donna, for taking the time to come and visit us.  We always enjoy talking with you, and thanks again for treating us to dinner at McMenamins on the Columbia River!

Donna and Russ